This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by Assaph Mehr. Original Post: In Praise of Evolvable Systems Feed Title: Open Mouth, Insert Foot (Echo Internationally) Feed URL: http://www.bloglines.com/blog/AssaphMehr/rss Feed Description: General geekness venting, mostly about Ruby and why Software Engineering != Computer Science, dammit! Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by Assaph Mehr Latest Posts From Open Mouth, Insert Foot (Echo Internationally)

Have just read Clay Shirky's In Praise of Evolvable Systems.
It's been around for almost 10 years, can't believe I've only just came across it. It's a must read, especially for anyone interested - like me - in design, architecture and open source issues.

While this article talks more about protocols, I believe it also applies to why open source and agile menthodolgies seem to grow so much lately. Low cost OS solutions, things that get released early and often, have the benefit of - while not getting things quite right - getting them more right faster than centrally designed projects. Be it languages, from the ivory tower of C# to the semi-open JSR of Java to the open-but-directed Ruby and Python, or frameworks or tools - the benefits from the increased evolutionary forces on those projects is evident. The more open you are -> the more connected to your environment you become -> the more evolutionary forces are applied -> the faster you become better.